I know it's long but please read. This is a cautionary tale of buying a new phone when none of the parties involved (Google, HTC and T-mibile) want to deal with accountability.
I ordered my phone unsubsidized for the $530 on January 7th and promptly received it the very next day on January 8th. My phone was working beautifully and i didn't see any of the problems that plagued some other users (ie. spotty 3G). I spent the next few days telling people that had heard the negative feedback and were hesitant in buying the phone about my great experience. That all changed 10 days later.
On the evening of January 10th i was playing a quick game while my phone was charging. After about 10 minutes my screen went blank My battery was at 60% at the time but the phone would not restart, even the battery charge indicator was not lit. I did the usual battery pull gto no avail. So, i let it sit charging for about 30 minutes hoping that would solve the issue. No luck.
Of course Google doesn't have or want the support in place to deal with this and the number on HTC's site just takes you to a general info number. That leaves T-mobile. I promptly called t-mobile technical and it automatically forwarded me to HTC's technical support. Guess they were sick of Nexus Ones users calling and wanted to pass the buck. The rep there had me do the usual battery pull, and hard rest (power on while holding down volume. Still no luck. Phone officially bricked.
The rep gave me the option of either sending the phone in for repairs or putting another $530 on credit hold while they send me a new phone and the packaging to send back the old one. I was still within the 14 day grace period so I just opted for the new phone. The rep sounded pretty new and borderline competent but how hard could it be to screw this up? I quickly received an email from HTC with my ticket and was told that i should get another email with my Fed Ex tracking number. I was also told that i should receive the new phone within 2 business days with the packaging to return my old phone.
By Tuesday January 19th i had still not received an email with a tracking number. Since I called on a Sunday night and Monday was a holiday I didn't think it was a big deal but I figured I'd give HTC a ring again to check on the status. After being placed on hold a few times the rep told me that there was some mistake and that they only had on record that they would send me the packaging to return the phone first. He then told me he rould escalate it and have me sent the new phone along with the packaging to return old one. He then said i should get my Fed Ex tracking number in my email shortly.
On the evening of Wednesday January 20th I still had not received any Fed Ex tracking so I gave them a ring again. The rep told me that the phone had been sent but was unable to give me a tracking number because "someone had incorrectly entered it into the system". I told him that he may have been looking at the correction the day before where they had incorrectly sent a courier with just the return packaging. He again said he would escalate the ticket but seemed to be sure that it was sent out. However he still could not give me a tracking number. Instead he advised calling the next day in hopes that the tracking number would be corrected.
Thursday January 21st, I called back to check the tracking number and was in the middle of the call with a rep when the call was starting to get staticy. I asked him for a direct number and his name. He politely gave it to me and told me to call him back and ask for him directly. I called again and got some other support rep who told me that he was unable to transfer calls and I would have to work with him. Ok, so i proceeded to go through the entire verification and explanation yet again for the fifth time. He put me on hold and FINALLY got me a tracking number. I said my thanks and ended the call. I then went on Fed Ex's site and entered that number just to find that it didn't exist. Argh.
So, i called yet again told this nice lady all the details of my experience with HTC and pleaded for her to help. "Where the hell is my damn phone?!" but phrased in a slightly nicer manner. She entered in the tracking number that i was given and told me "The number he gave you was the tracking number for when you first ordered the phone". If this lady wasn't so apologetically nice I would have put my fist through the line. She then gave me another tracking number which i checked online while she was still on the phone. No dice. She put me on hold again for 10 minutes and when she came back she told me that I was initially put in the system incorrectly. In their system i was supposed to first receive the packaging to send back the old phone and then i would get the new phone after they had received the old one. Shocking...No new phone had been sent yet!
She then said that she would escalate this ticket to have some one correct it. I said Hells No, this would have been the 3rd time it would have been "escalated" with no contact or solution occurring. So, i waited another 10 minutes as she put me on hold to speak to her supervisor in person about it. She came back and told me that i should finally get an email with my tracking number "within 24 hours" and that I should get my phone within 2 business day but to check back Monday January 24th if i still had not received it.
Hopefully this is all finally sorted out but I will update this as Monday approaches. After my initial call it took 5 calls just to find out that they bungled my order and no new phone was on it's way? This is absolutely unacceptable and a colossal failure on HTC's part.
This pretty much sums up the Nexus One launch. Google wants the cachet of releasing their own branded phone but does not want the accountability. T-mobile doesn't want to deal with tech issues and instead just wants new subscribers. And HTC just wants to make the phones but doesn't want to deal with any possible defects or doesn't have a competent infrastructure in place to deal with the surge of problems.
The tiny conspiracy theory part of me thinks HTC is intentionally stalling sending me a new phone so that my 14 day return grace period expires and I'm permanently stuck with no recourse.
Does anyone know of any class action lawsuits against the three parties for the Nexus One debacle?
My advice for those on the fence about getting this phone...look for a different one. Or at least until these three parties get their act together.
UPDATE: Jan 22nd
24 Hours after my last call and i still haven't received the prepaid label or tracking number yet again. I've called up and the HTC rep told me she was going to yet again "escalate my ticket" . I've asked to speak to her supervisor since this is now the 8th call but she conveniently "can't find one around". She claims that my information is "incorrectly in the system and will correct it" again. She then offered to clear out the old order because it is screwed up and re-do it from scratch. Instead of getting the phone Monday I am now looking at Wednesday. This is unbelievably frustrating.
I ordered my phone unsubsidized for the $530 on January 7th and promptly received it the very next day on January 8th. My phone was working beautifully and i didn't see any of the problems that plagued some other users (ie. spotty 3G). I spent the next few days telling people that had heard the negative feedback and were hesitant in buying the phone about my great experience. That all changed 10 days later.
On the evening of January 10th i was playing a quick game while my phone was charging. After about 10 minutes my screen went blank My battery was at 60% at the time but the phone would not restart, even the battery charge indicator was not lit. I did the usual battery pull gto no avail. So, i let it sit charging for about 30 minutes hoping that would solve the issue. No luck.
Of course Google doesn't have or want the support in place to deal with this and the number on HTC's site just takes you to a general info number. That leaves T-mobile. I promptly called t-mobile technical and it automatically forwarded me to HTC's technical support. Guess they were sick of Nexus Ones users calling and wanted to pass the buck. The rep there had me do the usual battery pull, and hard rest (power on while holding down volume. Still no luck. Phone officially bricked.
The rep gave me the option of either sending the phone in for repairs or putting another $530 on credit hold while they send me a new phone and the packaging to send back the old one. I was still within the 14 day grace period so I just opted for the new phone. The rep sounded pretty new and borderline competent but how hard could it be to screw this up? I quickly received an email from HTC with my ticket and was told that i should get another email with my Fed Ex tracking number. I was also told that i should receive the new phone within 2 business days with the packaging to return my old phone.
By Tuesday January 19th i had still not received an email with a tracking number. Since I called on a Sunday night and Monday was a holiday I didn't think it was a big deal but I figured I'd give HTC a ring again to check on the status. After being placed on hold a few times the rep told me that there was some mistake and that they only had on record that they would send me the packaging to return the phone first. He then told me he rould escalate it and have me sent the new phone along with the packaging to return old one. He then said i should get my Fed Ex tracking number in my email shortly.
On the evening of Wednesday January 20th I still had not received any Fed Ex tracking so I gave them a ring again. The rep told me that the phone had been sent but was unable to give me a tracking number because "someone had incorrectly entered it into the system". I told him that he may have been looking at the correction the day before where they had incorrectly sent a courier with just the return packaging. He again said he would escalate the ticket but seemed to be sure that it was sent out. However he still could not give me a tracking number. Instead he advised calling the next day in hopes that the tracking number would be corrected.
Thursday January 21st, I called back to check the tracking number and was in the middle of the call with a rep when the call was starting to get staticy. I asked him for a direct number and his name. He politely gave it to me and told me to call him back and ask for him directly. I called again and got some other support rep who told me that he was unable to transfer calls and I would have to work with him. Ok, so i proceeded to go through the entire verification and explanation yet again for the fifth time. He put me on hold and FINALLY got me a tracking number. I said my thanks and ended the call. I then went on Fed Ex's site and entered that number just to find that it didn't exist. Argh.
So, i called yet again told this nice lady all the details of my experience with HTC and pleaded for her to help. "Where the hell is my damn phone?!" but phrased in a slightly nicer manner. She entered in the tracking number that i was given and told me "The number he gave you was the tracking number for when you first ordered the phone". If this lady wasn't so apologetically nice I would have put my fist through the line. She then gave me another tracking number which i checked online while she was still on the phone. No dice. She put me on hold again for 10 minutes and when she came back she told me that I was initially put in the system incorrectly. In their system i was supposed to first receive the packaging to send back the old phone and then i would get the new phone after they had received the old one. Shocking...No new phone had been sent yet!
She then said that she would escalate this ticket to have some one correct it. I said Hells No, this would have been the 3rd time it would have been "escalated" with no contact or solution occurring. So, i waited another 10 minutes as she put me on hold to speak to her supervisor in person about it. She came back and told me that i should finally get an email with my tracking number "within 24 hours" and that I should get my phone within 2 business day but to check back Monday January 24th if i still had not received it.
Hopefully this is all finally sorted out but I will update this as Monday approaches. After my initial call it took 5 calls just to find out that they bungled my order and no new phone was on it's way? This is absolutely unacceptable and a colossal failure on HTC's part.
This pretty much sums up the Nexus One launch. Google wants the cachet of releasing their own branded phone but does not want the accountability. T-mobile doesn't want to deal with tech issues and instead just wants new subscribers. And HTC just wants to make the phones but doesn't want to deal with any possible defects or doesn't have a competent infrastructure in place to deal with the surge of problems.
The tiny conspiracy theory part of me thinks HTC is intentionally stalling sending me a new phone so that my 14 day return grace period expires and I'm permanently stuck with no recourse.
Does anyone know of any class action lawsuits against the three parties for the Nexus One debacle?
My advice for those on the fence about getting this phone...look for a different one. Or at least until these three parties get their act together.
UPDATE: Jan 22nd
24 Hours after my last call and i still haven't received the prepaid label or tracking number yet again. I've called up and the HTC rep told me she was going to yet again "escalate my ticket" . I've asked to speak to her supervisor since this is now the 8th call but she conveniently "can't find one around". She claims that my information is "incorrectly in the system and will correct it" again. She then offered to clear out the old order because it is screwed up and re-do it from scratch. Instead of getting the phone Monday I am now looking at Wednesday. This is unbelievably frustrating.
)... I would have taken the $530 hold on my card to avoid a lapse in having a Nexus... as it stands... only a hold of $28 on my a card until they receive the return...
